Steve Evans is expected to be Gillingham manager until the end of the season after Stevenage appointed Paul Tisdale as their new boss.

The League Two side had been keen on appointing Evans as their new manager and approached Gillingham to speak to the former Leeds United and Peterborough United boss, but a compensation package couldn’t be agreed and they looked elsewhere, appointing Tisdale on Sunday.

With just over six months remaining on his three year contract at Priestfield, KSN understands Evans won’t walk away from The Gills despite seeing the side slip into the League One bottom four on Saturday with the 1-0 loss at home to Portsmouth.

Whether chairman Paul Scally feels the need for a change and sacks Evans is an entirely different matter though.

Under pressure himself and fans boycotting Priestfield in their droves, Gillingham are very much a club struggling on all fronts at present.

On Saturday, Evans branded Portsmouth lucky and let rip at referee Dean Whitestone as his injury-hit side slipped to a dramatic 1-0 defeat.

Jack Tucker’s stoppage-time own goal at Priestfield left the Gills in the League One drop zone and extended their winless run to six games.

John Akinde and Danny Lloyd both went close for the hosts before Whitestone denied Evans’ side a penalty when Akinde and Gavin Bazunu tangled in the box.

And the angry Gills boss, who had a depleted squad at his disposal, said:

“Portsmouth got a bit of luck with their goal today – they deserved to get beaten.

“Anybody who doesn’t think we deserved to win today must have been watching the game with the back of their head.

“John Akinde and Danny Lloyd have had good chances – one on ones – and they’ve not really made the goalkeeper work.

“And we’ve had a blatant penalty not given. I think the referee’s performance was shocking.

“We had a really decent performance yet we lost. You know why you lose games when you play badly, but it’s hard to take today.

“I think I said pre-match that Portsmouth have had their Christmas early with the lack of options we have, and they’ve had it even earlier by getting the three points today.

“We’ve dropped into the bottom four, but we know how many players we’ve got injured.

“We’ve had 10 missing, we’ve got academy kids on the pitch. The boys are very down tonight after this sucker-punch but we’ll reset ourselves.”

Dan Phillips missed the game with a hamstring injury and Evans confirmed he will be out for some time: “He is out for weeks,” said Evans.

Meanwhile, Rhys Bennett was set to return to the side on Saturday, but missed the game after being told to self isolate after being identified as a Covid contact.

For Gillingham, they now have over a week to prepare for their next game, away to Rotherham United next Tuesday night.

In that time, they will be hoping to get a few more players back from injury with Vadaine Oliver, David Tutonda, Alex MacDonald and Ben Reeves all still out.